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Our Voices Need To Be Heard, Part 1

TwinsFan268

Entry posted by TwinsFan268 ·

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Baseball isn't coming back if we don't do something about it.

 

I don't follow other sports, but I learned that the NBA and MLS are restarting in Florida, and the NHL is doing... something, I don't really know what. Their boards and committees have all approved of plans, but MLB has not.

 

Here's the thing: People NEED baseball. They need to have that thing that distracts them from regular life. They need a sport that's totally organized and set up right.

 

I understand that we have a major global pandemic right now. But if other professional sports are figuring out how to restart, than we need to as well. We need to figure things out so we can have a season. And right now, it's all about money. They aren't thinking about what players want, or what fans want. It's all about money.

 

I personally really liked the MLBPA's proposal for a 114-game season. As a fan, I want to get in as many games as possible. Now they're saying that they only want to play for 40-50 games. Just so they can pay the players as little as possible!

 

A baseball player's job is hard. They have to play 162 games in a season, and they risk injury doing all this. It's physically demanding and difficult. That's why I believe that players should get payed as much as possible.

 

I need baseball. Replay games lack the magic of a regular game. We need that unpredictability, one where we can't look up the final score.

 

Baseball is my favorite sport. Even if we don't play in 2020, that won't change. Here's the thing though: It will change for some people. If baseball is the ONLY sport that doesn't come back in 2020, baseball will face serious declines in fans.

 

This post was sort of just my ideas. I wrote whatever came into my head and I'm aware that I kept circling back to things. But, if you liked this and want to know more of my ideas, you can look for part 2 on Monday.

 

Comment why you think baseball should or should not come back in 2020. I may use some of your ideas in my next post.

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Nick Nelson

Thanks for writing this. I think you echo the feelings of a lot of fans.

 

Personally, I do want to see a baseball season but I have hard time seeing a solution. The players and league are just too far apart. The logistics are so tough. The timeline is starting to crunch.

 

I continue to feel that the best bet is some sort of specialized tournament (a la WBC). Players who want to opt in are able to, others can opt out but still earn something. Maybe they even draft new teams depending on how much participation there is. 

 

Use the opportunity to test new technologies, innovations and rule changes. Ump-less games with electronic strike zones? Why not, it's safer. Interactive broadcasts, players mic'ed up in-game... there are a lot of things MLB could try out, many of which might be premium features they could use to drive more revenue.

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nclahammer

A happy medium between what the owners and players have proposed and counter-proposed would be an 80-ish game season.  I'm a diehard baseball fan and I will survive, even if there is not a season this year.   The fans IMO that MLB has the greatest risk of losing are those fringe fans, who will look for and find another outlet for their sports needs, if one is provided.  Let's get together play ball!

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TwinsFan268

 

Baseball is also my favorite sport, but I don't need it. I'm almost to the point where I don't even want it. 

 

Mind if I use this for something in my next part? Just like it if that’s fine with you.

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woolywoolhouse

Growing up, baseball was my favorite sport. It was all I did and watched and read about (pre-Internet days, so I re-read a lot of books and magazine articles. Then something happened in 1994, and I lost interest until 2002, when I took a job at a small town talk-radio station and listened to games and was part of the Twins Caravan... Last time there wasn't baseball, it took six years and a paying job to become reacquainted with my childhood obsession. I've been a huge fan since then, even taking a part-time job with the Twins in 2017 just to be a part of the organization... But I can already feel myself slipping back to '94-'02, and everytime I read an article about the players or owners arguing about dollars it slips another notch.

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TwinsFan268

 

Growing up, baseball was my favorite sport. It was all I did and watched and read about (pre-Internet days, so I re-read a lot of books and magazine articles. Then something happened in 1994, and I lost interest until 2002, when I took a job at a small town talk-radio station and listened to games and was part of the Twins Caravan... Last time there wasn't baseball, it took six years and a paying job to become reacquainted with my childhood obsession. I've been a huge fan since then, even taking a part-time job with the Twins in 2017 just to be a part of the organization... But I can already feel myself slipping back to '94-'02, and everytime I read an article about the players or owners arguing about dollars it slips another notch.

Wow. See, that’s exactly what I DON’T want to happen to young fans and just fans in general. Try and hang on. Follow simulated seasons, it at least gives you some kind of recap to read every day. That’s a tip I wanna give to every fan who feels like they’re slipping away from baseball.

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bighat

Baseball will always be my favorite sport and I do want to see it in 2020 - although if it's just going to be a shell of a season with players wearing hazmat suits, I'm not sure I would be interested....but I digress. Overall I'm utterly embarrassed for the game right now, especially in light of what all the other sports are doing.

 

Take, for example, what's going to happen with football. This NFL season will draw more at-home viewers than ever. From a marketing perspective, they're going to get creative as heck: more mic'ed up players, online interaction, all sorts of "virtual experiences" and whatnot. It's going to be revolutionary and it's going to be such a hot topic....

 

Meanwhile, baseball had the chance to do it first. And they're too busy arguing! Owners look greedy and players look like awful cry-babies (just look at their tweets). The players, in particular, look bad here because they're the names we KNOW. Quick: who owns the Oakland A's? The Kansas City Royals? Most fans don't have a clue and they don't care. But we do know the players, and we listen to what they say, and all we're hearing from them is "NO".

 

Even worse, baseball isn't a contact sport! So football, the most contacty-of-contact-sports is gonna put their product out there, meanwhile these guys in MLB won't budge an inch. And it's all surrounded by "union discussions", the mere mention of which bores the public to tears and makes people lose interest in the process.

 

All in all the whole situation is a witches' brew of bad optics for baseball. Again, the best word for what's going on: EMBARRASSING.

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